


A Study in Crumbs

by Elenhin



Category: The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Crumbs, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-29
Updated: 2013-11-29
Packaged: 2018-01-02 23:25:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1062905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenhin/pseuds/Elenhin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a sequel to Biscuit, a story based on the One Word at a Time series by Aramirandme81.</p>
<p>Olaf is amazed by the fact that Axl can make a mountain of crumbs from a simple biscuit, while Anders won't leave a single crumb behind. </p>
<p>Trying to understand how this can be, he goes to lengths to try and figure it out. Which is fine, until Anders figures out what he's doing....</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Study in Crumbs

**Author's Note:**

> As always, big thanks to Aramirandme81 who allows me to play with these. Thank you. :D *hugs*

_**A Study in Crumbs** _

 

“Corn on the cob,” Olaf states seriously. “We need corn on the cob.”

 

“Sure,” Mike have no objection, after all, what is a barbeque without corn on the cob? He is however a little surprised over Olaf’s sudden interest in food. Normally all he cares about is eating it, now there is more. He has also started plieing Axl and Anders both with all kinds of food. With Anders Mike can sort of understand it. Anders is a picky eater at times, he can decide he does not like it and skip a meal, or get preoccupied and forget to eat.

 

Axl is more like a giant vacuum cleaner pointed towards a fridge. You open the door and the food is gone.

 

Now Olaf suggested a family barbeque which Mike will be hosting while Ty is bringing over a lot of side dishes. He did not even suggest that Axl or Anders bring anything. Axl is completely incapable of it, and Anders had not wanted to join them at first.

 

Quite normal behaviour for Anders, though Mike wasn’t sure why this time around. Olaf had insisted though and the blond had given in surprisingly quickly.

 

Anders has been tricky lately, even more so than usual. One moment he is being a selfish prick, the next Mike saw hints of the baby brother that had used to always tag along after him. He do not even know how to treat him anymore, should he yell at him, or hug him?

 

Instead he focuses on making things ready, making sure there is plenty of cold beer.

 

Ty comes early to help him, no surprise there. Between the two of them they manage to get most of it ready while Olaf takes over the kitchen. When Mike questioned him on it he grinned and claimed that if Mike took care of the grill, and Ty the side dishes, he’d see to dessert.

 

After making it very clear that he did not want any ‘special’ ingredients, Mike left him too it. The next time he enters the kitchen he can only shake his head.

 

“Holy shit grandpa, are you planning on feeding an army?” There are ice cream cones with chocolate pudding and whipped cream, dirt cake with worms, a very sticky looking chocolate cake concoction and a selection of ‘improved’ biscuits.

 

It looks incredibly messy and Mike figures they’d better make sure there are plenty of napkins available. Axl for one is going to leave a huge mess.

 

“We need some family time Mike,” Olaf tells him seriously. “This way they’ll stick around for a bit.”

 

“I guess you have a point,” he muses. It’s true, it’s with Axl and Anders the problems are centered, and both are more than likely to be tempted by the amount of junk food Olaf has readied. If they are eating and enjoying themselves they are less likely to fight.

 

Axl comes just a few minutes late, eyeing the food hungrily and demanding to know if they can start eating. Anders comes later, looking tired and sinks down into a chair with just a wave towards the others, then gratefully accepts the beer Olaf hands him.

 

“Don’t tell me, late night drinking?” Mike muses.

 

“No more like, no night working,” he rubs at his eyes. “Believe it or not, sometimes it takes a lot to stay floating, and I’ve had a really hard day and I’m really not in the mood, so unless you plan on being nice I got better things to do, like sleeping.”

 

“You need to eat first,” seeing the perfect opportunity Olaf grabs a plate and heaps it full. He plans to find out once and for all how it is Axl will leave crumbs everywhere from just one single biscuit, and yet Anders never leaves a trace anywhere. He handed Axl a plate just before Anders came, a few ribs, a couple of sausages and a cob of corn with a modest amount of butter. Already Axl is sporting traces of barbeque sauce halfway up to his ears.

 

Filling the plate for Anders he slathers the corn in butter and barbeque sauce, drenching the ribs in the same. Not so much of the potato salad Ty has made, just enough. Axl have already spilled a large dollop of it on the ground.

 

Anders takes the plate gratefully, has a deep swallow of the beer and then digs into the food. He’s eating the rib and corn with his fingers, occasionally wiping his hands on the napkin, the smallest hint of barbecue sauce at the corner of his mouth and then with a quick lick from the tip of his tongue it’s gone.

 

Olaf looks at him, peering closely.

 

There is a few specks of corn in Axl’s hair.

 

Anders is spotlessly clean.

 

“Have you been eating at all lately?” Mike demands when he notices Anders has cleaned his plate. Normally he does not eat half that much.

 

“Are you going to lecture me?” Anders asks suspiciously.

 

“Nah,” he shrugs. “Just wondering, you look about half starved.”

 

“I feel about half starved,” Anders gives a small grin. “With all the shit that’s been going on, no, I haven’t been eating enough I guess. Never the time for it and not much appetite.”

 

“Let that settle and you can have seconds,” Olaf urges.

 

He gives them both seconds, Axl and Anders and this time Anders notices the difference. Axl is focused solely on his food, which is not surprising. Axl tends to be generally oblivious to most things, and especially when there is food involved.

 

However he do not believe that it is a coincidence that Olaf has taken a bigger interest in them lately. He might not be able to solve every guessing game like Mike can, but he is not stupid. It’s easy to figure out that it has to do with him, Axl and food, but it’s harder to figure out what the purpose is.

 

Until he catches Olaf absently murmuring about food, crumbs and not natural. There is more, but some of it is not making sense. He can not see what the Bermuda Triangle has to do with it.

 

Enough of it is however starting to make perfect sense.

 

Ever since they were kids Axl has been a messy eater, always spilling, always crumbs and food stains everywhere. He himself does not. He’s very neat about it, he learned quickly not to leave a mess behind. Mum did not like that, dad did not like that, and Valerie hated that.

 

Olaf knows this, but it strikes Anders he does not know why. He wasn’t there when their mum got mad that he left crumbs on the counter. She was tired from taking care of Ty, and Anders had to make his own lunch. He left crumbs and marmalade stains on the counter and she got mad. She slapped him so he lost his balance on the chair he was standing on and fell.

 

He wasn’t there when their father gave him a fair beating for spilling, wasting food.

 

Valerie was just as bad, she did not beat him or hit him for it, but it was just as bad. By then he could eat almost anything without leaving a single crumb behind, but she picked on him for his after school snacks anyway until he gave it up. Being hungry was easier, Valerie made him develop a dislike for food in general.

 

If he had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich becuase he was starving when he got home from school he was making a mess in the kitchen. Even if he left it cleaner than when he started. He was also ruining his appetite for dinner and thus did not show any appreciation for her working so hard to cook for them. He wasted money, he wasted a lot of money since he didn’t eat at mealtimes just so he could gorge on unhealthy snacks.

 

Instead he started losing weight because he couldn’t enjoy food at all anymore.

 

Olaf didn’t know any of this Anders realized.

 

It struck him it could be amusing.

 

For one thing he suddenly decided he was sick of letting them win. Their mum wasn’t around to hit him for making a mess. Neither was their dad, and he really, really hated the idea of letting Valerie win.

  
He had nothing against being moderately tidy, but there were limits and if he wanted to eat messily he would.

 

He would also have some fun.

 

Grabbing Axl he pulled him aside while Olaf went to fetch more beer.

 

“Axl, can you eat dessert without looking like you’ve been rolling in it?” he demanded.

 

“Huh?” his brother frowned confused.

 

“Do you think you can eat dessert without looking like a pig who’s been rolling around in the mud?” Anders clarified.

 

“That’s insulting,” Axl pouted.

 

“It’s the fucking truth, and you know it, now can you?” he demanded.

 

“Why?” Axl gave him a suspicious look.

 

“Look, short sweet and simple, Olaf is trying to figure out why you’re a messy eater and I’m not, I thought we’d turn the table on him,” he grinned.

 

“What? I’m not,” Axl blinked and Anders groaned inwards.

 

“Are too, just look at yourself,” he urged. “Don’t you pay attention?”

 

“I was paying attention to the food,” Axl grinned.

 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Olaf wants to see why you’re making a mess and I’m not, so can you be a bit tidy for once?”

 

“Why are you never making a mess?” Axl frowned. He had never thought about it before, but now that Anders spelled it out to him he realized it was true.

 

“Becuase mum was a bitch, dad a bastard and Val an even worse bitch than mum,” he did not bother with the details. “Now can you?”

 

“Yeah, sure, if I really, really want to,” he decided. Not quite sure how the rant about various parental figures played in, but he knew Anders wasn’t about to go into details at the moment.

 

“You want to,” Anders smiled. “You might not know it, but you have never wanted to do anything else this much your entire life.”

 

“How do you know that?” he demanded, folding his arms across his chest.

 

“Becuase I’ll make it worth your while, now come on,” Anders grabbed him and dragged him along.

 

Olaf had gotten distracted in his search for beer and now hurried back out. The alcohol bottle he had stumbled upon had been very distracting, but he needed to see how dessert went. Not even Anders should be able to eat mud cake without getting a speck of something on his face.

 

Walking up to them he stared in shock. Axl stood with a cone of chocolate pudding in his hand, a tiny spot of whipped cream on his hand, a trace of the sticky chocolate cake at the corner of his mouth.

 

Anders too had a cone, and he was a mess. He was beaming happily, blissfully even, but he had chocolate pudding smeared all over his mouth, whipped cream on his cheek and on his shirt.

 

He looked just like Axl usually did, exactly like Axl usually did, and there were biscuit crumbs on the ground beside him, more on his trousers.

 

Axk could make a mess anywhere, but Olaf did doubt he could manage to make that big a mess on Anders.

 

He really could not understand what had just happened.

 

He wasn’t sure if he dared to try and figure it out this time…

 

The End

 

Please comment, the Cricket is hungry


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